Monday 28 December 2009

Middlesbrough vs Scunthorpe 26/12/09


Boro 3 - Scunthorpe 0

Johnson (pen) 11
Williams 45
Aliadiere 46

No match report due to Christmas holidays

Player Ratings

Coyne - 6
Pogatetz – 7
Wheater – 7
Hoyte – 6
McMahon – 7
Williams – 7
Johnson – 8
Osbourne – 7
O'Neil – 8
Aliadiere – 8
Lita – 6

Subs
Riggott – 6
Yeates – 6
Bent – 6


Boro Man of the Match - Gary O'Neil
Attendance - 20,647
Game Highlight - Gordon Strachan's first home win!

Thanks for reading, and as always comments (good or bad) are always appreciated. Keep a look out on Twitter (@MFCFacebook) and check the links section of this blog for the Facebook MFC Fanpage.

Sunday 20 December 2009

Newcastle vs Middlesbrough 20/12/2009

Newcastle 2 - Boro 0

No match report due to Christmas holidays

Player Ratings

Jones - 3
Pogatetz – 7
Wheater – 6
Hoyte – 5
McMahon – 5
Williams – 6
Arca – 5
Osbourne – 6
O'Neil – 6
Kitson – 5
Lita – 6

Subs
Yeates – 6
Bent – 6
Franks – 6

Boro Man of the Match - Emanual Pogatetz
Attendance - 49,664
Game Highlight - None

Thanks for reading, and as always comments (good or bad) are always appreciated. Keep a look out on Twitter (@MFCFacebook) and check the links section of this blog for the Facebook MFC Fanpage.

Middlesbrough vs Cardiff 13/12/2009


Boro 0 - Cardiff 1

With Boro striding out to 'Steel River' I was confident that we might just get something out of this game, especially after the recent run of home results, but unfortunately I was to be disappointed.

An all time league low attendance suffered in the cold as Boro yet again were sunk by an average team by lacklustre defending, more so on the part of Brad Jones. In addition to this earlier on in the game Marcus Bent had an amazing opportunity to fire us into the lead, but upon receiving the ball looked like a scared rabbit in the headlights of a car and froze, then lazily passed.

Apart from this there is little to report back, just another poor performance at home.

Player Ratings

Jones - 5
Pogatetz – 7
Wheater – 6
StLedger – 6
McMahon – 5
Williams – 6
Yeates – 7
Osbourne – 6
Johnson – 6
Kitson – 6
Bent – 5

Subs
Lita – 5
Emnes – 5

Boro Man of the Match - Mark Yeates
Attendance - 17,242
Game Highlight - None

Thanks for reading, and as always comments (good or bad) are always appreciated. Keep a look out on Twitter (@MFCFacebook) and check the links section of this blog for the Facebook MFC Fanpage.

Saturday 12 December 2009

A bit of realism please...


I feel sorry for Gordon Strachan. He had the balls to take the poisoned chalice that is the Boro Manager’s job, and the fans repay him by shouting for his head after 6 games. I think this behaviour by a small section of the fans is pathetic and a disgrace.

Long gone are the days where Bryan Robson and Steve McClaren had the best Chairman in the league, were given money to compete for honours and given that luxury of time that all managers crave... unfortunately a certain Gareth Southgate spoiled all that. Now we are left with a club that is broke, impatient fans, relegation and the hope of promotion ebbing away on weekly basis. We are all aware of the events that have brought us to Championship football so we won't dwell on them too much, but one thing amazes me - Steve Gibson, with the help of Gareth Southgate have destroyed our beloved club yet some fans think the blame lies with Gordon Strachan.

Strachan, like Southgate, has inherited someone else's team. He has had six games. Just six. Southgate had three seasons. So why won't some fans give Strachan a chance? Even if we didn't get promoted how can that be Strachan's fault? He will be trying his utmost to get promoted, because he is a winner, but he only has the resources available to him that Southgate's tenure left. I think that this minority of fans forget this, that we are in the Championship because of Southgate, that we have no money because of Southgate's purchases (and McClaren's before him), and dwindling attendances again, because of relegation, due to Southgate.

So with all things considered above its not the great job it used to be - Gordon thought that he would get time at Boro, but with Gibson's recent form, and if attendances drop even further it will be interesting to see how much time he actually would have, especially if promotion is not secured. There will be a lack of funds for Strachan also - even if we go up I can't see Mr Gibson signing any more £12m cheques for Brazilians playing in average European leagues.

Southgate is reported to be starting legal proceedings against the club, as rightly he wants his payout. But for me this has far more reaching implications which might explain why he remained as manager for so long. Being an astute man Gareth will have known that if he resigned he would be due nothing, so did he hold out at the expense of the club just so he would be guaranteed his lump sum? I don't know, but it's all a bit convenient for me. So Gibson has been weak, he should have acted earlier and saved the club from relegation but decided to think of the financial implications of paying out twelve months wages, shame he didn't think about the implications of relegation.

I thought that Gibson would have learned from the relegation that you need to strong to avoid doing down, make changes when they need to be made, and also make sure everyone in the club knows who is boss. Unfortunately though, more weakness prevailed, and it was Huth and Tuncay who came out on top, Tuncay especially, throwing strops to make sure he got his move back to the Premier League. If you look at West Brom and Newcastle they haven't sold their key players like we have, and they are the teams that are walking away with automatic promotion places. Huth was immense in defence, and Tuncay made playing up front look easy in the Championship - these were the type of players that we should have kept. Never mind all this unity spin from Southgate that "we only want players who want to be here" rubbish, we don't want to stay in the Championship, and the clubs needs come before the players...

Now any fan must realise that if Gareth remained we might have got another striker, if that. Gibson was not keep to spend the money in the close season when he was publicly backing Southgate, and only £500,000 was spent, namely on Mark Yeates. That striker may have been the quality of Caleb Folan, as Gareth certainly isn't known for signing quality players so what position would be in if he had remained? Probably a similar position to where we find ourselves now. The amount of home games that we had lost was terrible - if we had continued at the same rate we would have lost at least 12 for the season, and that certainly isn't the form that keeps you one point off top.

What other legacies has Gareth left us with then? You could start with the departures of James Morrison and Lee Cattermole. Both players left and have made themselves first team regulars, both have played in the Premiership, and Morrison regularly at the top of the Championship. Could Gareth not improve these players, or have controlled them? Cattermole is the one that really annoys me - touted as a future England star, he has always shown passion and commitment, but ends up leaving for not much, and becomes a regular centre midfielder. Maybe if Gareth had played him in his position we might have reaped the benefits...

Southgate has also left us with many club records broken, and not the good ones... A £6m loss on Afonso Alves, discontent between the club and fans, fighting amongst fans torn by his three year tenure... There seems to be many negatives, but not many positives. So even with all of the above, fans certainly gave Gareth longer than six games (people are actually wanting him back!!!)... and that is what Strachan needs - time...

It seems like Mr Gibson has learned from his mistakes, and has employed a good, proven, experienced manager and it looks like he is prepared to back him financially. If we as fans are patient with the team at home, get behind them for at least beyond half time, maybe fill the stadium a little more we might be able to make a difference and rid Boro of this fear of playing at home. After all, we all want the same thing... promotion. And I'm sure that Gordon Strachan is working tirelessly to ensure that we have the best chance of going up, rather than holding on to the job waiting to be sacked for the big payday... I just hope that it’s not too late, and even if it is there are only two men to blame, and neither of them is Gordon Strachan.

Thanks for reading, and as always comments (good or bad) are always appreciated. Keep a look out on Twitter (@MFCFacebook) and check the links section of this blog for the Facebook MFC Fanpage.

Middlesbrough vs Blackpool 8/12/2009


Blackpool 3 - Boro 0

By Tim Ketteringham


Before the game there was a renewed atmosphere around the Riverside stadium, Boro were back after the 5-1 mauling of fellow promotion hopefuls QPR the previous Saturday. If we could win this game we would be back in the playoff mix and then looking to reign in the top two over the festive period. Blackpool, with only 1 win away all season (back in early September against a disjointed Nott’s Forest), would provide the opposition.

The game started with Boro lining up 4-4-2, with Johnson returning at the expense of Yeates after a family illness prevented him from travelling to London to face QPR. Blackpool, like most teams who visit the Riverside set up 4-5-1, with the well travelled Gary Taylor Fletcher leading the line.

The early exchanges were in Boro’s favour, but Blackpool’s tight shape prevented Boro breaking through. On a rare attack Johnson got free on the right hand side, fed the ball back to Williams who swung a cross in, which Kitson headed downward only to be saved by the keeper’s legs and spin away to safety.

Blackpool worked hard to keep pace with Boro in the first 20 minutes and it paid dividends when a long ball caught Boro cold. A diagonal ball was played out to the diminutive Branan on the wing and he slipped in side Williams before sliding in Gary Taylor-Fletcher, Boro still had chance to deal with the threat when Sean St Ledger had chance to clear his lines but his weak tackle meant Taylor-Fletcher looked up with the ball at his feet and his simple finish easily beat the on rushing Jones.

The Boro crowd groaned with discontent, but we could get back in this, we had to get back in this. Only the crowd believed this though as the players began to press the self destruct button, Blackpool running riot for the 5 minutes after the goal with Ormerod and the excellent Branan pushing on to support the very mobile Taylor-Fletcher. The crowd were incensed, as was Brad Jones in the Boro goal, Williams bearing the brunt of his, and the crowds, frustration.

Just when it seemed we were getting a foot on the ball again we switched off. Taylor-Fletcher stood arm aloft between the two centre backs and Branan, simply lofted the ball into him. Again Boro had time to clear, but again we tried to nip it of his toes, and once again it was left at his feet for him to slide it home.

The away fans were ecstatic, the home fans enraged. They players stood looking at each other, both Wheater and StLedger looking sheepish as they knew they had cost us the two first half goals.

We simply never recovered from this in the first half and the half petered out with not a single shot on goal since Kitson’s early header.

Half time: Boo’s and MFC 0 – 2 Blackpool

The second half began with McMahon coming on for Williams. Williams it seemed had paid the price for the poor first half display but in reality it could have been anyone of Wheater/StLedger or him. The crowd still sensed we might be able to get back into it with an early goal, and as the first 20 min of the second half passed Boro became more and more confident, without creating that elusive chance. Kitson went close when a sharp cross from Lita was steered just wide and then when Arca was shaping to shoot the ball was nipped of his toes. Surely the goal was coming…..

…it was. Blackpool continued to be a threat on the break moving both with and without the ball and the captain Charlie Adam broke free from his midfield position and beat a couple of weak challenges before excellently steering his shot inside Jones’ left hand post. Game over.

Mass exodus followed with thousands heading for the exists with disgruntled mumblings under their breath. Blackpool celebrated and how they deserved it.

Boro made 2 more substitutions when Gary O’Neil had to be stretchered off in what looked like a bad fall and the Yeates replacing the disappointing Arca. Yeates showed a great work ethic in his time on the pitch and created a couple of decent balls but the game was lost and again Blackpool sat back and soaked up what little attacking threat boro caused.

The final whistle came with a small boo, only because most people had left some 15 minutes before the end!

In summary, individual mistakes cost us goals but until we learn to break teams down at home we will struggle. We need to force teams back, take a gamble. It was all to defensive.

Only a couple of Boro players came out of the game with any credit, Mark Yeates for his enthusiasm and direct approach and Emmanuel Pogatetz for his excellent defending and commitment.

Man of the match: Branan (Blackpool) – caused Boro problems all night long with close control and slick passing.

Player Ratings

Jones - 5
Pogatetz – 6
Wheater – 4
StLedger – 3
Williams – 3
Arca – 4
O’Neil – 5
Osbourne – 5
Johnson – 5
Kitson – 5
Lita – 5

Subs
McMahon – 6
Yeates – 6
Digard – 6

Boro Man of the Match - None! Blackpool MoM was Branan
Attendance - 18,089
Game Highlight - The final whistle

Thanks for reading, and as always comments (good or bad) are always appreciated. Keep a look out on Twitter (@MFCFacebook) and check the links section of this blog for the Facebook MFC Fanpage.

Saturday 5 December 2009

Email Rants

Here are a few snippets from the various email conversations my fellow Boro fans and I have during the long tedious week at work... Please note that these aren't necessarily my views before I get slated for the anti-Gibson comments! Anyone agree with any of these thoughts?

Darren Bent & Steve Gibson

"Bent needs a run in the side before I pass judgement, I've only seen him play for about 70 mins - first game he looked pretty good, against Forest he was poor.

Gibson has made a massive error here you know, just looking at our front line the alarm bells should have been ringing! Now he's acted too late, and WGS is having to bring players in and hope the make an impact early doors, which is hard. Bent might have been all right if he had a pre-season, same with Folan, but now we are just chucking them on the pitch and hoping. Its not WGS's fault, what can he do? Its Gibson's and Southgate's, and it is gonna stop us going up in all likeliness. Gibson is a weak man, he should have got rid in Jan but never, that cost us our Prem League status, he should have sacked him at end of the season, but didn't, and that's gonna cost us promotion. From Hero to Zero in 3 seasons, cheers Steve, now jog on!

Gibson needs to spend about £10m to get us anywhere near promotion in Jan, people like Beckford and Hulse are who we should be looking to buy - PROVEN goalscorers... how many times has it being said? We need EXPERIENCE and players with PROVEN records!"

MFC's Half Season Ticket Money Back Offer (Link)

"Its annoyed me quite a bit actually - I know we aren't gonna win 4 games on the bounce so it won't affect us, and it might get a few more in (prob not that many more), but its the way MFC can only ever take REACTIVE action to any situation, rather than PROACTIVE action.

Prime example of this was Southgate, should have got sacked but we waited until we had lost 4 at home, this ST thing is another... if they were worried about attendance (which they should have been by keeping Southgate on) they should have dropped ST prices by 20% or something.

Obviously this way they won't lose any money cos we aint winning 4 on the bounce, but I think fans know this and there won't be that many that will fall for the ploy..."

Well as you can probably tell there is some annoyance with Boro in these two snippets, but what about the rest of the fans? Are they losing patience with the club? Please comment and let me know!

Thanks for reading, and as always comments (good or bad) are always appreciated. Keep a look out on Twitter (@MFCFacebook) and check the links section of this blog for the Facebook MFC Fanpage.

Monday 30 November 2009

Peterborough vs Middlesbrough 28/11/09

Peterborough 2 - Boro 2

Kitson 28, 58


This report has to be brief, mainly because in the terraces I couldn't really see the game, I only really saw Kitson's second goal!

A few points that I would like to make though are as follows:

Adam Johnson

The lad again had a really off game, don't know what his problem is at the moment... Maybe all this talk of moving to a Premier League club on a big money deal might be distracting him.

Dave Kitson

Brilliant performance for two goals, shame he is off back to Stoke in 6 weeks!

The Fans

The support was amazing on Saturday, but there was an awful amount of booing at full time. Fair enough, it was a must win game, and we only drew, and Posh are a poor side, but I think that the fans went a little over the top. The most amazing shout I heard was "Strachan Out - Southgate In!" - you do wonder if some fans have any clue at all - Strachan has only had 4 games mate... come on!!

Anyway, thanks for reading, sorry not very detailed, but despite terracing providing a great athmosphere you can't see any of the game!

Boro Man of the Match - Dave Kitson
Attendance - 10,772
Game Highlight - The Terracing, what an athmosphere


Friday 27 November 2009

Southgate's Signings


Now we are about a third of the way through the season, I thought that it might be a good time to look back at some of the new additions to the squad, as Gareth Southgate prepared his team to conquer The Championship. We'll look at what impact the players have made and how their futures may pan out at Middlesbrough Football Club. I think its too soon to look at Gordon Strachan's additions, but I will be writing about Gordon in the coming weeks, and will include his signings in that post. So, on to the players...

Danny Coyne - Goalkeeper

Danny was a welcome signing to a proportion of the crowd, who realised that we were very short of cover in this department. He made an excellent start to the season, aided by Wheater and Huth, and was the only Championship keeper to keep clean sheets for his first four league games. It looked that we had found out number one, but then it all rapidly went down hill at home against West Brom, letting in 5, and gifting them their second by clearing the ball to an opposing player whilst someway off his line. Coyne then got a knock, was replaced by Brad Jones, and despite not always looking the best keeper has kept his starting place. I think that if Jones has a nightmare he might have a chance to re-establish himself under Strachan, but it does look like he is now our permanent number two.

Mark Yeates - Midfield

Gareth's second signing of the pre-season came from Colchester, and was keen to impress. He made a bright start to his Boro career against Sheff Utd, looking like one of the best players on the park, and creating Boro's best chance of the game but his shot went narrowly wide.
Since then his appearances have been sporadic, making a few starts and sub appearances. At times we see glimpses of what a player he could be, but I feel like he hasn't yet been given a chance to show his full worth to the side. Since Gordon Strachan took over we have only seen a few minutes from Yeates, as Strachan doesn't seem to fancy the Irishman. As he has not really featured recently could be a favourite to be moved on come January, but the attitude of Mark suggests to me that he'll stay and fight to get back into the team.

Leroy Lita - Striker

Leroy was what Boro needed - an experienced Championship striker - with an fairly impressive strike rate in the Championship. He debuted against Sheff United, but waited until the fourth game of the season to make his mark for Boro by scoring a difficult chance against Doncaster, in a 2-0 home win. He went on then to score at Reading, his former club, and more recently against Notts Forest. Leroy has partnered Emnes, Aliadiaire, Folan, Bent and Kiston, but I am sure he is looking to forge a regular partnership, and to start converting a higher percentage of his chances. Lita has been known as a trouble causer in the past, but I'm positive with the right partner up front, and a regular run in the side he is more than capable of getting at least 15 goals this season.

Caleb Folan - Striker (On Loan From Hull City)

Somewhat of a panic signing from Gareth (or so it seemed, especially with his goal scoring record), Caleb joined us from Hull after falling out of favour with Phil 'The Perma-Tan Man' Brown. Debuting in the 5-0 home defeat to West Brom his Boro career didn't get off to the best start, then a subsequent injury has kept his off the pitch for the best part six weeks. He seems to be a hot favourite to get shipped back to Hull now Strachan has arrived, but only time will tell. The Leeds born striker was keen to impress and earn a contract when he arrived, so with any luck once fit he'll be trying his hardest to get back into the team.

I think whilst Gareth was trying to address the major areas of concern within the squad, the players that he brought in, Lita aside, are just not of the quality to be challenging for automatic promotion. Is this because Gareth was given little backing by Steve Gibson and so he had to buy this quality of player, or was Steve holding the money back because he was getting sick of it been wasted on flops. Either way, funds are now available for Gordon Strachan, and prior to January I'll post a similar piece regarding his signings, and maybe give some predictions for the January transfer window.

Thanks for reading, and as always comments (good or bad) are always appreciated. Keep a look out on Twitter (@MFCFacebook) and check the links section of this blog for the Facebook MFC Fanpage.

Sunday 22 November 2009

Middlesbrough vs Notts Forest 21/11/09


Boro 1 - Forest 1

Lita 5

I went into this game thinking that we could win, and after the well taken goal for Boro, courtesy of Liroy Lita, went in I thought we had a chance. Unfortunately for Boro though we lacked any sort of creativity from Midfield, with Adam Johnson putting in possibly his worst performance of the season.

The first half was pretty solid from a Boro perspective however neither team threatened on goal, but the second half was a different story all together. From the off Boro were under pressure and no matter what they tried they could not keep possession. Kitson, making his Boro debut, was subbed off in favour of Bent, and I felt things from this point went from bad to worse. A couple more subs followed, but nothing that could change the game in any way.

During the second half David Wheater hand balled on the edge of the box, and Robert Earnshaw calmly slotted in the free kick. This was a worrying development in Wheater's game as from this moment his confidence seemed to desert him, and he struggled though for the rest of the game.

Overall, a poor performance from Boro with Brad Jones having to come to the rescue on more than one occasion, and another week passes by without a home win...

Player Ratings

Jones - 8
Williams - 7
Wheater - 6
St Ledger - 6
Pogatetz - 6
Arca - 6
O'Neil - 7
Osbourne - 7
Johnson - 5
Lita - 7
Kitson - 6

Digard - 6
Bent - 6
Franks - 6

Boro Man of the Match - Brad Jones
Attendance - 22,710
Game Highlight - The Top Gear presenters on the pitch at half time... that says it all really!